This picture might just be the one that ‘started it all’ for me. It was definitely not the first picture I took, nor was it the best–but it was probably the first time that I took a picture and really went, “Wow, I did that.” It was 2003 and there really weren’t too many digital cameras around, but I’d had my little brick-like Sony DSC-S30 for about two years by then. My friends and I always seemed to end up at Seattle Center when we wanted to go on a photography adventure and this was taken right outside of Seattle’s opera house, McCaw Hall. It had just rained so the ground was reflective and everything seemed to sparkle.

I posted it up on DeviantArt (this really dates me) a few days afterwards and it was a Daily Top Favorite, over 18,000 views, 650 favorites, and 320 comments. Talk about confidence boost.